Defense alone may not win championships these days

“The game has changed,” said the former Bears coach who won a Super Bowl after the 1985 season with one of the top defenses in NFL history.

That being said, darn if he isn’t having a fun time watching the 49ers try.

“They remind me a lot of my team,” Ditka said. “They not only hit you hard, but they tackle real well. And they come in telling teams they can’t run on them, and then they get after your quarterback as well.

“They can really play defense.”

Brian Billick also rode his defense to a Super Bowl ring, and the former Baltimore Ravens coach said, “The 49ers are using the same formula that we did” in the 2000 season.

“They don’t give you any room to breathe, and they take the ball away,” Billick said. “Plus, Alex Smith won a game for them last week, and that’s so important. It’s a quarterback-driven league these days, and you need your quarterback to win some games for you – even when you have a great defense like the 49ers do.”

The 49ers set an NFL record by giving up only three rushing touchdowns this season, and actually went the first 14 weeks without allowing one. Take that, plus a pass rush that was led by rookie Aldon Smith’s 14 sacks and a ball-hawking secondary that helped take away the ball 38 times, and you have something special.

It takes more than talent. The 49ers have a creative defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio and some chemistry and confidence that seem to feed off each other.

“I’ve been on teams that have had a bunch of first-round draft picks,” said cornerback Carlos Rogers, who spent his first six seasons with the Redskins and was picked for his first Pro Bowl this year. “Sean Taylor, LaRon Landry, DeAngelo Hall, Shawn Springs … and I haven’t had this much success in my career. It’s just about putting them games together back to back, making the best plays and having your coach put you in a situation to win.”

It starts up front, as all great 3-4 defenses do, with first-team All-Pro Justin Smith and the defensive line. The 49ers sent four or fewer rushers after the quarterback on 80.9 percent of snaps during the regular season, the second-highest rate in the NFL. And they had 31 sacks – fourth in the NFL – when dropping at least seven defenders into pass coverage.

All-Pro linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman are a couple of tackling machines who fill the lanes the big bodies up front create, and they are athletic enough to cover tight ends and running backs. In fact, the 6-foot, 242-pound Bowman sometimes looks like the league’s biggest safety.

The safeties and the cornerbacks do their part as well. Free safety Dashon Goldson is showing much better range as the year goes on. Not only were there plays last week where Saints quarterback Drew Brees had time and couldn’t find a receiver, but the 49ers’ defensive backs were also running around carrying hammers.

Strong safety Donte Whitner knocked New Orleans running back Pierre Thomas out of the game in the first quarter with a hit so loud and hard that mothers covered their children’s eyes watching at home. (It was the seventh time this season a starting running back left a game against San Francisco because of injury.)

“We’re not really trying to hurt people,” Whitner said. “But when we play physical, people get hurt.”

And while the quarterbacks and the freakishly athletic tight ends may be taking over the league, one thing remains as true as when the 1985 Bears and 2000 Ravens roamed the field:

Nobody likes to get hit over and over again.

“Look, Green Bay and New Orleans, they’ve been selling tickets all year long, they’ve been on TV all year long,” Whitner said. “But when it boils down to it, they’re not in the final four. We are. The Giants are. It’s a testament to having a real strong, physical defense.”

Super Bowl defense

How the 49ers measure up with two teams whose defense carried them to championships, the 1985 Bears and 2000 Ravens: